Want to lose some weight? Or get bigger? What diet should you choose? South Beach? Atkins? The Paleo Diet? Jenny Craig? Blood Type? The Warrior Diet? Low Carb, low fat, high protein, low protein, high carb... Feel confused? You should be! You can purchase any 'fitness' or 'diet' magazine right off the rack and get conflicting information, sometimes in the same issue! So what IS the answer? Believe it or not, it is more simple than you think.
So what is the deal with all those diet books and eating plans? Do they work? The answer is YES, they do. And here is the reason why: all diet books and plans are based around caloric restriction. Let's take your typical diet book. The first part of the book (about the first half) is all about why this particular diet is the best one for you, why the author is amazing and intelligent, and how it will change your life. Then there are a few pages on how to really 'do' the diet (caloric restriction disguised as any number of eating habits). Then the last half is all recipes, and how you can cook your way into weight loss and not be bored by what you eat.
Why diet books such as these (and they are all remarkably similar) work, is because those of us that are overweight (and don't have a true medical reason to be so - and I was very overweight so I know) basically eat WAY TOO MUCH. Making any change at all will get something to happen, and because most of us eat too many calories if you stick with your diet book's plan, you'll lose weight. I had never really counted calories, so I thought I ate healthily. And so I did, I just ate for THREE healthy people. When I finally got a handle on how many calories I was ingesting on a regular basis, and more importantly, how many calories I needed to eat each day in order to LOSE weight, I was able to effect change in my own body.
You are probably asking right now, how do I figure out how many calories I need to eat in order to reach my goal? Once again, there are many different ways to figure out caloric intake, but recently when I attended a Z-Health Sustenance Certification Workshop, we were presented with a slightly different approach to figure out caloric needs. Instead of figuring out what you need to ingest in order to maintain your current weight (which is the more typical calculation) and then guess what you needed to change from there, we used a calculation that was all about how to reach your target weight and bodyfat percentage. It's called The Aragon Equation, and this is how it works:
Step 1: Calculate your "reference weight" or "target weight" based on your target body composition:
-Set a goal for lean body mass in pounds, then multiply by 100. For example, a male athlete want to carry 175lbs of lean body mass. 175 x 100 = 17,500 (A).
-Set a goal for body fat percentage. Subtract that number from 100. Our same male athlete wants to be at 6% body fat. 100 - 6 = 94 (B).
-Divide A by B. This is your reference weight. 17,500 / 94 = 186.2
Step 2: Estimate your REE (resting energy expenditure) by multiplying your reference weight by 9 for females and 10 for males. For our athlete, 186.2 x 10 = 1862 calories per day.
Step 3: Mulitply the REE by the projected exercise calculation;
-Divide your projected number of exercise hours per week by 10. Our same male athlete plans to train 3 hours per week. 3 / 10 = .3
-Add 1 to the answer from above. 1 + .3 = 1.3
-Add or subtract 10% to this answer based on whether your exercise will be high or low intensity. If moderate intensity, simply leave it as it is. For our athlete, who trains hard: 1.3 x 10% = .13, which leads ultimately to 1.3 + .13 = 1.43
Step 4: Multiply your REE by the projected exercise calculation to find an excellent caloric target based on the athlete's goals. For example 1862 x 1.43 = 2663 calories per day.
Step 5: Because Aragon is very big on making sure that his athletes understand that this is an estimate, he allows individuals to apply a "10% fudge factor" if the final number seems too high or too low.
At this point you may be thinking that you don't really know what different body fat percentages look like. Here is a decent forum page that includes (scroll down) pictures of men with different body fat percentages. http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=31392. So far I've not turned up any pictures of women, if you find any, email me with the url!
Good luck, and persevere --- you'll see a change! You can always contact us for questions or assistance.
In Strength and Balance ~ Andrea U-Shi Chang
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Submitted by Kettlebility on Thu, 08/27/2009 - 1:57pm.
